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"Cyberpunk worked when the Internet was in its hand-wound crystal radio phase, when you had to be a sort of hobbyist to do e-mail, and it all had a very steep learning curve. Those days are over."
- William Gibson
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| Planet-Busting Bomb | ||
| A munition with sufficient power to destroy an entire planet. |
This is a very early (maybe the first) fictional reference.
| Somebody had slipped when Marshall Wellington Smith selected Rigel IV for his planet-busting test. |
| Technovelgy from Testing,
by J.J. Ferrat. Published by Fantastic Universe in 1956 Additional resources -
|
In Frank Herbert's 1972 novel The Godmakers, Lewis Orne was sent to the planet Gienah to see if it was a safe planet for further development.
The term is not original with Ferrat; it was discussed briefly in "sf fact" articles as early as 1950.
Compare to the magnetic shell from The Great Stone of Shardis (1897) by Frank Stockton, the
atomic bomb from The World Set Free (1914) by HG Wells, the atomic shell from Buck Rogers: 2430 AD (1929) by Nowlan and Calkin, the roving bomb from Lost Rocket (1941) by Manly Wade Wellman, the
Wabbler from The Wabbler (1942) by Murray Leinster and the smart bullet from Runaway (1985) by Michael Crichton.
This one calls for one planet-buster bomb, buster. In five days. Unless you give them a white bill in the meantime. High Commissioner Bullone will have word of this planet by then. If Gienah still exists in five days, can you imagine the fun the politicians'll have with it? Oh Mamma! Orne, we want this planet cleared for contact or dead before then.
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'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
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'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...'
I'm hoping that this procedure becomes a normal part of medical practice!
'... nothing was perfected until M. Pantalon announced the completion of his automatic valet.'
